cascocSingapore’s CapitaLand to Sell a Third of its Australand Stake 2013-11-20 05:17:33.901 GMT

By Nichola Saminather Nov. 20 (Bloomberg) -- CapitaLand Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest developer, is seeking to sell part of its 59 percent stake in Australand Property Group to raise as much as A$433.7 million ($408 million). CapitaLand is offering 115.7 million shares, equal to about 20 percent of Australand’s outstanding securities, the Singapore-based company said in a filing through the stock exchange today. CapitaLand is offering the shares at A$3.685 to A$3.750 each, according to terms for the transaction obtained by Bloomberg News. CapitaLand this year carried out a review of its businesses, which it concluded in July with a decision to maintain its stake in Sydney-based Australand. During the review, several parties expressed an interest in all or part of Australand’s business. The Australian developer said yesterday that it expects impairments of about A$65 million in its commercial and residential development businesses. The sale will be done through an accelerated bookbuild process underwritten by Citigroup Inc., according to the filing. The allocation and pricing of the shares will take place tomorrow, with terms of the sale to be announced following that, CapitaLand said today. Australand shares were 3.4 percent lower at A$3.75 before trading was halted in Sydney and are up 10 percent this year. CapitaLand shares were down 1.3 percent at S$3.06 before they were suspended from trading.

CapitaLand Limited (CapitaLand) announced that it has bought back an aggregate of 2 million shares of CapitaLand in an on-market share buyback exercise on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited on 6 December 2013.

This was in pursuant to the Share Buyback Mandate approved by shareholders at the Extraordinary General Meeting of CapitaLand held on 26 April 2013.

The Shares were bought back at the weighted average price of S$3.0037 per Share.

CapitaLand will hold the bought back Shares as treasury shares. At approximately 17% discount to CapitaLand’s Net Tangible Asset of S$3.63 as at 30 September 2013, Management believes that the current CapitaLand share price is attractive given the outlook for CapitaLand’s businesses in Singapore and China.

CapitaLand may consider further Buybacks subject to market conditions.